"We always begin at the wrong end. I should be the last person to disparage the necessity for scientific research. The simple fact is, however, overlooked that our agricultural population, steeped in ignorance and illiteracy and owning only small plots and scattered holdings, are not in a position to take advantage of or utilize the elaborate scientific researches which lie entombed in the bulletins and transactions of these Institutes. Mr. Mackenna very rightly observes: The Famine Commissioners, so long ago as 1880, expressed the view that no general advance in the agricultural system can be expected until the rural population had been so educated as to enable them to take a practical interest in agricultural progress and reform. These views were confirmed by the Agricultural Conference of 1888. The most important and probably the soundest proposition laid down by the Conference was that it was most desirable to extend primary education amongst agricultural classes. Such small countries as Denmark, Holland and Belgium are in a position to send immense supplies of cheese, butter, eggs, etc., to England, because the farmers there are highly advanced in general enlightenment and technical education and are thus in a position to profit by the researches of experts. The peasant proprietors of France are equally fortunate in this respect; over and above the abundant harvest of cereals they grow vine and oranges and have been highly successful in sericulture; while the silk industry, in its very cradle, so to speak, namely Murshidabad and Malda, is languishing and is in a moribund condition. "Various forms of cattle plague, e.g., render pest, foot and mouth disease, make havoc of our cattle every year and the ignorant masses steeped in superstitions, look helplessly on and ascribe the visitations to the wrath of the Goddess Sitala. It is useless to din Pasteur's researches into their ears. As I have said before, our Government has the happy knack of beginning at the wrong end. An ignorant people and a costly machinery of scientific experts ill go together. "The panacea recommended for the cure and treatment of all these ills is the foundation or re-organization of costly bureaus and Scientific and Technical services, the latter with the differentiation of "Imperial" and the 'Provincial' Services, which are in reality hotbeds for the breeding of racial antipathies and sedition. For the recruitment of the Scientific Services the Commissioners coolly propose that not only senior and experienced men should be obtained at as early an age as possible, preferably not exceeding 25 years. What lamentable ignorance the Commissioners betray and what poor conception they have of this vital question is further evident from what they say: